Former Laker Mark Madsen finalizing deal to become Los Angeles D-Fenders’ head coach

According to Adrian Wojnarowski, the Lakers’ D-League affiliate team, the Los Angeles D-Fenders, are looking to bring in Madsen to coach their squad:

[pullquote]Mark Madsen, a popular ex-bench warmer with the Los Angeles Lakers, is finalizing an agreement to become head coach of the Los Angeles D-Fenders of the NBA Development League sources told Yahoo! Sports.

The Lakers own and operate the D-Fenders, who recently lost coach Reggie Theus to the coaching job at Cal State Northridge.

Madsen recently completed his first season as an assistant coach at Stanford University.[/pullquote]

After having their best season ever in 2011-12 as they went 38-12, they followed it up with a poor 21-29 record last season. Sometimes, it’s hard to win consistently in the D-League as the best players on the team are often called up to the big league throughout the year and NBA team’s will assign their young players to their affiliate and then re-call them during the season whenever they see fit.

Although, it’ll still be interesting to see how Madsen fares in Los Angeles as this will be his first head coaching gig. Good luck, Mad Dog!